Disclaimer: Those who are here because my other stories were very fluffy and sweet should note that this story is something different. There will be mentions of suicide, domestic violence, drug and alcohol abuse, familial trauma, dub-con and various other topics that might be triggering. These mentions will not likely be graphic but may cause some readers discomfort, and there may be descriptions of the injuries resulting from certain situations. I will try to remember to make note of anything bothersome at the beginning of the chapter, but it's possible I might miss something. If so, I sincerely apologize. Please send me a message if something in one of the chapters bothers you and I've failed to adequately warn for it, so I can edit the chapter note.
Thanks for reading! PD
Prologue
Warnings: alcohol abuse, domestic violence, dub-con
Rose had never been so nervous about a date in her life. She hadn't been on a date at all since she and Mickey had decided that they were better as friends six months ago. She had been trying to focus on working, trying to save enough to go back to school. Then, she'd let Shareen drag her to that club last weekend. The Gypsy Rain. The club had been loud and crowded and Rose lost herself in dancing for a while and even forgot that she hadn't really wanted to come. She had been taking a break for a moment, watching Shareen from the bar when he approached and asked if he could buy her another drink. She had turned and it was him. He was tall and broad shouldered, with slicked back blonde hair and bright green eyes. He was the singer for the band that had been onstage until about fifteen minutes before.
When she looked at him, he smiled and spoke again. "Hey, doll. Name's Jimmy. Want to spend my break getting to know each other?" His smile and leer should have felt slimy, but the adrenaline and the alcohol made her feel daring so she grinned at him and introduced himself. It wasn't that she'd never been hit on in a club before. But certainly never by a member of the band. She'd spent the rest of that night talking to Jimmy and being sweet talked by him. By the time she and Shareen had left the club for the night, Jimmy had been insisting that he needed to see her again, and hence tonight's date.
She was especially nervous because she had learned that Jimmy Stone had money. He wasn't just the front of the band, The Wild, he was also a partner at the club, and the club did very well. She hadn't known when she'd given him her address for tonight. She wasn't exactly embarrassed about being broke, but she was sure his normal dates lived somewhere a little less… Well, council estate. She thought she might really like him, and she was worried that seeing where she lived might be a deal-breaker for him. He could probably have anyone he wanted. What would he want with a council chav like her?
She heard the doorbell ring and her mum moving to answer it. Her nervousness spiked a bit as she gave her reflection a last check before going to greet him. She was wearing a black halter dress that stopped just above her knees. It was her nicest dress and he hadn't said where they were going, so… She decided it would have to do. And that her mother had had enough time to torture Jimmy.
She had been dating Jimmy for six months and her life seemed so very different. He'd showered her with gifts and she now had an all-new wardrobe as well as jewelry and a beautiful gold watch. On every date he presented her with a single white long-stemmed rose. Her mum had been likewise the recipient of lavish gifts. She went to the club nearly every night these days and he had taken to introducing her as his Rose. She'd met the rest of the band: Adam Mitchell was the flirtatious drum player, an even more flirtatious woman named River Song played bass (Rose wondered if that could possibly be her real name), and an outrageous woman named Christina played lead guitar. She claimed to be nobility, a lady or something. Rose privately thought she was off her rocker. She had met a few other people who worked at the club and, one night, she briefly met the other partner. Jimmy said he hardly ever came by. Mr. Saxon had made her uncomfortable with the piercing way he had looked at her, but he hadn't stayed long after speaking with Jimmy privately and she hadn't seen him apart from the one time.
She hadn't even thought much about her plans for returning to school since she had started dating him. It was so thrilling having a rich man shower her with attention and he had been taking up a lot of her time. For the past three months Jimmy had been trying to convince her to quit working at the shop, but her mum couldn't afford the flat without Rose's help. Jimmy just kept telling her he only wanted to take care of her, that he didn't like the idea of his girl serving others.
For their six month anniversary he took her to Paris. On their second evening there, after an exquisite dinner at a five-star restaurant he presented her with a ring. It had the largest diamond she had ever seen up close and personal. He asked her to marry him and told her he had also bought a small house for her mum. His mother-in-law wouldn't be living in a council estate flat. Of course she said yes. No more working in the shop for Rose Tyler.
Rose and Jackie spent six months planning a fairy tale wedding on an unlimited budget. Rose's father had died when she was a baby, but after some grumbling Mickey had agreed to give her away. The church, and the ballroom they'd hired for the reception were full of white roses. All of her friends from the estate were there, and they all agreed that Rose was by far the luckiest of their number. Rose found that she couldn't disagree with them. She thanked Shareen for dragging her into the Gypsy Rain a year earlier.
At the reception she met Mr. Saxon again. He kissed her hand and for just a moment her skin crawled. Then he was begging her forgiveness for borrowing her groom and he and Jimmy were walking away. She shook the feeling off. He was Jimmy's business partner and there was no reason at all for the man to give her the creeps. He had been unfailingly polite at both of their meetings. She just didn't know him that well. That was all.
She found herself dancing with Adam. He had stopped flirting with her mostly. Every once in a while, if Jimmy wasn't right there, though, she would catch him… well, she was pretty sure ogling her was the right phrase, but that couldn't be right. He was Jimmy's friend and bandmate, so it had to be her imagination. There had been none of that tonight, though. He seemed genuinely interested in keeping her company while Jimmy was otherwise occupied. It took her quite by surprise when, as they were dancing, an arm came from behind her, across her shoulder and shoved Adam away from her. "Just what do you think you're doing?" Jimmy loomed over Adam, a sneer on his face. "Don't touch my wife, Mitchell."
He turned to Rose, then. She flinched a bit at the anger in his eyes, but she blinked and it faded. "Sorry, love. Adam won't touch you again. Understand?" For a second, there was a hard light in his eyes again, and she felt just a tiny spark of fear. She nodded quickly and the light faded. She must have imagined that. He smiled at her then, and whisked her back out onto the dance floor and she relaxed again. Jimmy was her husband. He only wanted to take care of her, like he always said. He'd never hurt her. So, if there had been a threat in there somewhere, it had been directed at Adam, not her. Blokes were just territorial, that's all. Even Mickey had been, when they were dating. Jimmy was probably feeling it a little more than usual because it was their wedding day, that's all. At that thought, she felt the excitement take hold again. It was her wedding day, and he was her husband, now. He loved her and he wanted to take care of her. She had nothing to fear.
The first three months of her marriage were a mostly happy time for Rose. She had moved into Jimmy's gorgeous penthouse flat and taken up painting again as a way to fill her time. Jimmy liked her to be home most of the time, and she usually found that she didn't mind playing the dutiful housewife to him. She still went to club often, and Jimmy was still generous with his gifts. She didn't see her mum as often as she used to, but she and Jackie were both adjusting to their new lives. Jackie adored her little house, and had taken to working in the small backyard garden, now that Jimmy had made it where she also had no need to work. Rose still sometimes expected to wake up and find that it had all been a dream. But, there were signs that first three months that the dream wasn't what it appeared to be.
Rose wasn't a heavy drinker, but she did enjoy wine and the occasional mixed drink. Jimmy drank as well, of course, and more than she did, but while they were dating she had never seen him get entirely drunk. Instead he had plied her with fine wines, of the sort that she hadn't ever thought she would have the opportunity to taste. Sometime during that first three months, Jimmy stopped drinking wine altogether, and began drinking whiskey. Straight. Rose saw no reason to be bothered at first, after all, who was she to judge his taste in alcohol? For all she knew, he's always preferred whiskey, and he'd only drunk wine with her before as a deference to her taste.
She didn't go to the club every night, and by the end of the first three months, Jimmy was coming home completely wasted on those nights that she didn't go. He would come home with his pupils blown wide and smelling strongly of liquor. She had tried to take care of him the first few times that happened, but he didn't seem interested, so she began a ritual of kissing him goodnight when he returned in that state and retiring to their bed alone. It wasn't ideal, and it wasn't what she had expected of their marriage, but he was a good provider, for both her and her mum. She reasoned with herself that it wasn't like she knew anything about the stresses of running a business or leading a band. And it wasn't like he had done anything wrong aside from being a bit surly with her.
Over the next three months of her marriage she became increasingly worried about his behavior as his drinking became still heavier. Even on the nights that she went into the club he was getting completely drunk. Sometimes, when the band wasn't playing, he would disappear for hours at a time, leaving her sitting at the bar nursing the single glass of wine that she now allowed herself. She reasoned one of them should stay relatively sober, after all. The bartender, Craig, was kind to her, even though he didn't talk to her very much. Apparently Jimmy had warned the staff against being too 'friendly' with his wife. But he smiled at her sympathetically on the nights Jimmy seemingly abandoned her for hours on end. Whenever Jimmy reappeared on these nights, he always reeked of smoke and whiskey, his pupils seeming to obscure the green of his eyes. For some reason he was also usually in a bad mood.
During this time their marriage bed went from adventurous to aggressive bordering on violent. It was the first time that Rose began to consider whether she had made a mistake in marrying Jimmy Stone. When he was sober he was still sweet and doting, and when he was cruel he always, always apologized later. The apology was always accompanied by the long-stemmed white rose.
Everything changed six months after their wedding. Rose hadn't gone to the club that night. Jimmy hadn't been happy about it, even though he hadn't ever made a fuss before, and Rose had told him she was having a headache. He'd been in a rotten mood already when he had left. When he came home, he was, of course, completely inebriated. Only, this time, instead of insisting she just leave him alone, he wanted her. She didn't really want him coming to bed at all in this state and she told him so. She thought she might be able to get him to come to his senses. Jimmy laughed at her, a cruel thing that sent a spike of ice shooting through her heart. "Listen, bitch, you belong to me, and I'll take you whenever I goddamn well please!" He'd backhanded her, hard and she'd seen stars. The he'd proceeded to do exactly whatever he wanted.
When Rose woke up the next morning, he was gone. It wasn't a surprise, he always left whenever they had an argument. Not that last night could really be construed as an argument. Her head hurt even worse than it had the previous day, and one of her eyes wouldn't open properly. Her legs were stiff and her pelvis was sore. Her left wrist was swollen. She was terrified. She didn't want to know what Jimmy would do if she went to the hospital like this. She was too humiliated to call Mickey, or any of her old friends. She had pulled her mum into this as well. Jimmy owned her house. She was trapped. She was trapped, and it wasn't a dream, it was nightmare.